I am a HUGE Joan Crawford fan. And as such, I feel the need to expound upon a couple of my favorite Joan films!
Female on the Beach. This film is laden with incredible rat-a-tat-tat dialogue and the kind of raw sensuality that can still make you blush. As you can see from some of the stills:
Jeff Chandler plays a beach bum gigolo out to seduce wealthy widow Joan Crawford. Natalie Schafer (widely known as Mrs. Howell from Gilligan's Island in her later years) and Cecil Kellaway play his "accomplices" while Jan Sterling is a woman scorned.
Despite the Hays' code, this film is quite risque and sexually frank. Think of it as a combination of Peyton Place and Suspicion. It toys with being completely over the top in places but I think it manages to sink its claws into you in a refreshingly visceral and titillating way.
A few years ago, I discovered Joan's Western classic "Johnny Guitar".
And what a gem it is!
Johnny is played by the scrumptious Sterling Hayden, and the rest of the cast is just as impressive: John Carradine, Mercedes McCambridge, Ernest Borgnine, Royal Dano, Ward Bond, Scott Brady, Ben Cooper. Joan plays Vienna, a gun-toting bar owner with big dreams, who crosses paths with the bitter and more than a little unhinged Mercedes McCambridge.
Johnny Guitar is full of incredible dialogue- a sort of Western Noir if you will. My favorite lines:
Sterling: How many men have you forgotten?
Joan: As many women as you remember.
Sigh. They don't make 'em like that anymore.
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